Berlin Wall

News about the Berlin Wall, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Nov. 18, 2014

Michael Kimmelman Critic's Notebook assesses state of Berlin's architecture 25 years after fall of Berlin Wall; notes that many Berliners regret haste with which wall was demolished and sold, plight that befell many of city's landmarks that are now prized as architecturally significant; observes that wall's destruction, however, also created new range of urban possibilities. MORE

Nov. 11, 2014

David Brooks Op-Ed column contends that post-communist states have not flourished as expected twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall; notes majority of nations have failed to achieve economic, institutional and political success, while a handful have blossomed; holds lesson is that democratic prosperity is built on layers of small achievements, and that psychic damage and mistrust caused by Communism take a long time to heal. MORE

Nov. 10, 2014

Art installation with 8,000 illuminated balloons retraces the path of the Berlin Wall to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its fall; multitude of events and gestures remember dark cold war era. MORE

Nov. 9, 2014

Germany celebrates 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's collapse, joyous day for most, but hard day for others whose relatives were killed trying to cross the barrier; majority of people killed were young men in their teens or 20s with no political motives. MORE

Nov. 9, 2014

Dispatch column by Ian Johnson contends Berlin's quarter-century transformation into Germany's one truly cosmopolitan metropolis is due to moves made 20 years ago, and the city has been coasting ever since; describes how thrilling it was to live in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall; compares city's current inability to innovate with Beijing, which seems to be chasing the future to a degree that Berlin cannot. MORE

Nov. 7, 2014

Op-Ed article by Prof Mary Elise Sarotte holds Pres Ronald Reagan's intervention, contrary to popular belief, was not responsible for fall of Berlin Wall; says wall fell due to combination of mistakes by East German officials and rising opposition among German citizens; contends while America set influential example for Berlin, the misreading of this historic event risks contributing to notion that American leaders can shape world events while ignoring complex local realities. MORE

Oct. 10, 2014

Roger Cohen Op-Ed column commemorates 25th anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall; holds Germany's fracturing and re-unification presents lessons on negative repercussions of societal divisions; notes role American support played in bringing Germany back together, and says that such forceful, clearheaded diplomacy is also needed in Ukraine and Iraq. MORE

Sep. 20, 2014

Five slabs of the Berlin Wall that have been on display in public plaza on East 53rd Street in Manhattan since 1990 are removed, reportedly for restoration and repair. MORE

Mar. 28, 2013

Work crews backed by police officers remove parts of Berlin Wall to make way for upscale building project, despite demands by protesters that site be preserved. MORE

Mar. 5, 2013

Removal of the East Side Gallery section of the Berlin Wall is halted after protests. MORE

Jun. 12, 2012

Op-Ed article by author and speechwriter Ted Widmer analyzes former Pres Ronald Reagan's famous speech imploring Soviet leader Mikhail S Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall; notes that Reagan wisely ignored his advisers, who recommended that he omit the speech's most enduring line. MORE

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Multimedia

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the notorious physical and symbolic barrier between East and West Germany, and Eastern and Western Europe, the photographer Anthony Suau returned to Berlin to again photograph history.

Events in Prague commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution explore the grueling struggle for freedom during more than four decades of Soviet-managed totalitarianism in eastern Europe.

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the notorious physical and symbolic barrier between East and West Germany, and Eastern and Western Europe, the photographer Anthony Suau returned to Berlin to again photograph history.